The next chapter (41) describes the gulf of Barygaza (gulf of Cambay) and the adjoining land, but the passage has been much mangled by the copyist of our only MS. and more still by the guesses of editors. According to the simplest correction (ἥροςτης’ Αριακησχωρα) our author says that next after Barakê (Dvârakâ) follows the gulf of Barygaza and the country towards Ariakê, being the beginning of the kingdom of Mambaros and of all India. Mambaros may possibly be a corruption of Makhatrapos or some similar Greek form of Mahâkshatrapa, the title of the so-called “Sâh Kings” who ruled here at this period (a.d. 250). According to the reading of the MS. the author goes on to say that “the inland part of this country bordering on the Ibêria (read Sabiria = Sauvîra) district of Skythia is called … (the name, perhaps Maru, has dropped out of the text), and the sea-coast Syrastrênê (Surâshṭra).” The country abounded then as now in cattle, corn, rice, cotton and coarse cotton cloth, and the people were tall and dark. The capital of the country was Minnagara whence much cotton was brought down to Barygaza. This Minnagara is perhaps the city of that name placed by Ptolemy near Mânpur in the Vindhyas, but it has with more probability been identified with Junâgad (Bhagvânlâl) which was once called Manipura (Kath. Gaz. 487). Our author states that in this part of the country were to be found old temples, ruined camps and large wells, relics (he says) of Alexander’s march, but more probably the work of Menandros and Apollodotos. This statement certainly points to Kâthiâvâḍa rather than to Mânpur. The voyage along this coast from Barbarikon to the headland of Pâpikê (Gopnâth) near Astakapra (Hâthab) and opposite to Barygaza (Broach) was one of 3000 stadia = 300 miles, which is roughly correct. The next chapter (42) describes the northern part of the gulf of Cambay as 300 stadia wide and running northward to the river Maïs (Mahî). Ships bound for Barygaza steer first northward past the island
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Periplus. Baiônes (Peram) and then eastward towards the mouth of the Namnadios (Narmadâ) the river of Broach. The navigation (chapter 43) is difficult by reason of rocks and shoals such as Hêrônê (perhaps named from some wreck) opposite the village of Kammôni (Kim) on the eastern shore and by reason of the current on the western near Pâpikê (perhaps a sailor’s name meaning Unlucky). Hence the government sends out fishermen in long boats called Trappaga or Kotumba (Kotia) to meet the ships (chapter 44) and pilot them into Barygaza, 300 stadia up the river, by towing and taking advantage of the tides. In this connection our author gives a graphic description of the Bore in the Narbadâ (chapter 45) and of the dangers to which strange ships are exposed thereby (chapter 46).
Inland from Barygaza (that is, from the whole kingdom, which, as we have seen, bordered on Sauvîra or Multân) lay (chapter 47) the Aratrioi (Araṭṭas of the Mahâbhârata and Purâṇas, who lived in the Panjâb), the Arakhôsioi (people of eastern Afghanistan), Gandaraioi (Gandhâra of N.-W. Panjâb), Proklais (near Peshâwar), and beyond them the Baktrianoi (of Balkh) a most warlike race, governed by their own independent sovereigns. These last are probably the Kushâns who, when the Parthian empire fell to pieces in the second quarter of the third century, joined the Karên Pahlavs in attacking Ardeshir. It was from these parts, says our author, that Alexander marched into India as far as the Ganges—an interesting glimpse of the growth of the Alexander legend since the days of Arrian (a.d. 150). Our author found old drakhmai of Menandros and Apollodotos still current in Barygaza.
Eastward in the same kingdom (chapter 48) is the city of Ozênê; which was formerly the capital, whence onyxes, porcelain, muslins, and cottons are brought to Barygaza. From the country beyond Proklais came costus, bdellium, and spikenard of three kinds, the Kattybourine, the Patropapigic, and the Kabalitic (this last from Kábul).
We learn incidentally that besides the regular Egyptian trade Barygaza had commercial relations with Mouza in Arabia (chapter 21) with the East African coast (chapter 14) and with Apologos (Obollah) at the head of the Persian Gulf and with Omana on its eastern shore (chapter 36). The imports of Barygaza were wine, bronze, tin and lead, coral and gold stone (topaz ?), cloth of all sorts, variegated sashes (like the horrible Berlin wool comforters of modern days), storax, sweet clover, white glass, gum sandarac, stibium for the eyes, and gold and silver coin, and unguents. Besides, there were imported for the king costly silver plate, musical instruments (musical boxes are still favoured by Indian royalty), handsome girls for the harem (these are the famous Yavanî handmaids of the Indian drama), high-class wine, apparel and choice unguents, a list which shows that these monarchs lived in considerable luxury. The exports of Barygaza were spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, onyxes, porcelain, box-thorn, cottons, silk, silk thread, long pepper (chillies), and other wares from the coast ports.
From Barygaza our author rightly says (chapter 50) that the coast trends southward and the country is called Dakhinabadês (Dakshiṇâpatha): much of the inland country is waste and infested by wild beasts, while populous tribes inhabit other regions as far as the Ganges. The chief towns in Dakhinabadês (chapter 51) are Paithana (Paithan) twenty days journey south of Barygaza and Tagara (Dhârur) a very large city ten days east of Paithana. From Paithana come onyxes, and from Tagara cottons muslins and other local wares from the (east) coast.
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Periplus. The smaller ports south of Barygaza are Akabarou (perhaps the Khabirun of Mahomedan writers and the modern Kâvêrî the river of Nâusâri) Souppara (Supârâ near Bassein) and Kalliena, which was made a mart by the elder Saraganês, but much injured when Sandanês became its master, for from his time Greek vessels visiting the port are sent under guard to Barygaza. This interesting statement is one of the clearest indications of the date of the Periplus. As Bhândârkar has shown, the elder Saraganês implies also a younger, who can be no other than Yajñaśrî Śâtakarṇi (a.d. 140), and the Periplus must be later than his time. The Sandanês of the text must have been a ruler of Gujarát and may be identified with the Kshatrapa Saṅghadâman (a.d. 224).
South of Kalliena (chapter 53) were Sêmylla (Chaul) Mandagora (Mandangaḍ) Palaipatmai (Pâl near Mahâd) Melizeigara (probably Janjîra) and Byzantion (Chiplun). The words which follow probably give another name of Byzantion “which was formerly also called Turannosboas,” the name Toparon being a misunderstanding (Müller, Geogr. Gr. Min. I. 296). South of this are the islands of Sêsekreienai (Burnt Islands), Aigidioí (Angediva), Kaineitai (Island of St. George) near the Khersonêsos (Goa), and Leukê (Laccadives ?) all pirate haunts. Next comes Limyrikê (the Tamil country) the first marts of which are Naoura (Cannanor or Tellichery, rather than Honávar, which is too far north) and Tyndis (Kaḍaluṇḍi near Bepur) and south of these Muziris (Kranganur) and Nelkynda (Kallaḍa). Tyndis and Muziris were subject to Kêprobotras (Keralaputra that is the Cera king) and Nelkynda to Pandion (the Pâṇḍya king of Madura). Muziris was a very prosperous mart trading with Ariakê (North Konkan) as well as Egypt. Nelkynda was up a river 120 stadia from the sea, ships taking in cargo at the village of Bekarê at the mouth of the river. Our author gives an interesting account of the trade at these ports and further south as well as on the east coast, but we are not concerned with this part of his work.
Markianos.Markianos of Hîrakleia about the year 400 a.d. is the leading geographer of the period following Ptolemy, but his work consisted chiefly in corrections of Ptolemy’s distances taken from an obscure geographer named Prôtagoras. He adds no new facts to Ptolemy’s account of western India.
Stephanos.Stephanos of Byzantium wrote about 450 a.d. (or at any rate later than Markianos, whom he quotes) a huge geographical dictionary of which we have an epitome by one Hermolaos. The Indian names he gives are chiefly taken from Hekataios, Arrianos, and especially from a poem called Bassarika on the exploits of Dionysos, by a certain Dionysos. But his geography is far from accurate: he calls Barakê (Dvârakâ) an island, and Barygaza (Broach) a city, of Gedrôsia. Among the cities he names are Argantê (quoted from Hekataios), Barygaza (Broach), Boukephala (Jalâlpur), Byzantion (Chiplun), Gêreia, Gorgippia, Darsania famous for woven cloths, Dionysopolis (Nysa ?), Kathia (Multân ?), Kaspapyros and Kaspeiros (Kaśmîr), Margana, Massaka (in Swât), Nysa, Palimbothra (Pâṭaliputra), Panaioura near the Indus, Patala (thirty-five miles south-east of Haidarâbâd, Sindh), Rhodoê, Rhôganê, Rhôn in Gandarikê, Saneia, Sesindion, Sinda on the great gulf (perhaps Ptolemy’s Asinda, Vaḍnagar), Sôlimna, and Taxila. He also names a number of tribes, of whom none but the Orbitai (Makrân) the Pandai (Pâṇḍya) Bôlingæ (Bhâulingi Sâlvas) and possibly the Salangoi (Sâlaṅkâyana) belong to the western coast.
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Kosmas. Kosmas.Kosmas Indikopleustes, shipman and monk, who wrote his Topographia Christiana between a.d. 530 and 550, is the last of the ancient writers who shows independent knowledge of India. He says that Sindu (Sindh), is where India begins, the Indus being the boundary between it and Persia. The chief ports of India are Sindu (Debal), which exports musk and nard: Orrhotha (Surâshṭra that is Verâval) which had a king of its own: Kalliana (Kalyân) a great port exporting brass, and sîsam (blackwood) logs and cloth having a king of its own and a community of Christians under a Persian bishop: Sibor which also had a king of its own and therefore cannot be Supârâ, which is too close to Kalliana, but must be Goa, the Sindabur of the Arabs: Parti, Mangaruth (Mangalor), Salopatana, Nalopatana, and Pudopatana which are the five marts of Malê the pepper country (Malabâr), where also there are many Christians. Five days’ sail south of Malê lay Sielediba or Taprobanê (Ceylon), divided into two kingdoms in one of which is found the hyacinth-stone. The island has many temples, and a church of Persian Christians, and is much resorted to by ships from India Persia and Ethiopia dealing in silk, aloewood, cloves, sandalwood, &c. On the east coast of India is Marallo (Morava opposite Ceylon) whence conch-shells are exported: Then Kaber (Kaveripatam or Pegu. Yule’s Cathay Introd. page clxxviii.) which exports Alabandinum; further on is the clove country and furthest of all Tzinista (China) which produces the silk. In India further up the country, that is further north, are the White Ounoi or Hûṇas who have a king named Gollas (Mihirakula of inscriptions) who goes forth to war with 1000 elephants and many horsemen and tyrannises over India, exacting tribute from the people. His army is said to be so vast as once to have drunk dry the ditch surrounding a besieged city and marched in dryshod.